Dear friends,
Our 2013 Jane Jacobs Walks are among the first events to take people into public spaces since the horrific events in Boston. We believe in the freedom of public space as a critical component of democracy. Therefore it is with sorrow for what happened and determination to keep moving that we undertake these walks again this year. We invite all walk leaders to think about how their walks connect us to the importance of public space. As Jane wrote,
“Streets and their sidewalks–the main public places of a city–are its most vital organs.”
Central Square & Beyond: Layers of History and Culture (Part II)
2013 Jane Jacobs Walks
Let’s walk together this weekend in our public spaces,
Stephen Goldsmith, Mindy Fullilove, Glenna Lang, Chelsea Gauthier, and the Jane Jacobs Walk Team
Get to know JJ Walk Host, Amanda Lee
Fruit Distribution and Orchard Steward Coordinator with Seattle’s City Fruit
Photo Credit: John Bolivar
“Part ecologist, part social justice and food sovereignty activist, I have been interested in the intersections between environmental work and human health for the past several years.
It’s funny, having grown up in the suburbs of New York City, my family and I would make special trips to Flushing, Queens to find groceries that my mom could use in her traditional Chinese cooking. After I started living on my own, I found it equally difficult to find ingredients in my neighborhood. I thought, huh, how many people are in the same predicament, where cultural food memories are being lost? There are thousands of varieties of fruits and vegetables that people have cultivated and yet only a select few are available in grocery stores. In face of that, I am deepening my sense of place through growing Chinese vegetables in my backyard and learning, thanks to a supportive community, how to cook traditional dishes.
In addition, my formal education was in geography and I find it fascinating how different public spaces are used, transformed, and reclaimed by people, animals, and plants.”
Jane Jacobs Walk–Saturday, May 4th, 2013:
South Seattle Urban Orchard Tour
Why are you interested in hosting a Jane Jacobs Walk in Seattle?
Green spaces in New York, as noted in Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities are scattered, often on corners of city blocks or wedged between buildings. Urban farms in New York are relegated to rooftops whereas in Seattle, people can dig into the ground and grow things. Moreover, unlike New York, Seattle is absolutely inundated with fruit trees! However, there aren’t very many people who are aware of that fact and I hope through the Jane Jacobs Walk, the word will spread.
What will your walk through the orchards focus on?
The walk will focus on the history of orchards in South Seattle and what volunteers are doing to revive these previously forgotten trees. Through stewardship of fruit trees a community comes together to share space and appreciate a whole new aspect of the city.
What do you hope to accomplish with your event, South Seattle Urban Orchard Tour?
We hope to increase public awareness of urban orchards and interest in fruit tree care. Many homeowners have inherited fruit trees in their yards and with some care, can turn a liability (e.g. infested or fallen fruit) into a great asset. The same can be said for the orchard trees in city parks.
What is your role with City Fruit?
My role in City Fruit is to coordinate stewardship of public orchards and oversee the distribution of fruit in South Seattle. I also act as a hyper local community organizer in that I develop new project ideas and partnerships in the Columbia City neighborhood where we are based.
What are some of your hopes and visions for the future of your community?
The reason why I got into food justice work is to increase accessibility to fresh food and promote food sovereignty for communities of color. I hope that through a joint effort people of all ages and backgrounds, especially youth, will be interested in growing fruit and vegetables and pass on the history of that food for generations to come.
The San Francisco Experience
Jack Matheson, Jane Jacobs Walk Outreach Coordinator
I recently had the opportunity to visit the beautiful city of San Francisco. I had driven through the city once, but this was my first opportunity to get out onto the streets as a pedestrian and experience what San Francisco has to offer first hand.
My first experience visiting the city was about 8 years ago. I was on a road trip accompanying my brother who was traveling through the area on business. I vividly remember that first experience coming into the city from the northern end of the bay. I remember my first sighting of the city rounding the corner and being awestruck with how beautiful it was seeing the gorgeous metropolis rising out of the forested peninsula as we crossed the golden gate bridge. My memory has likely been embellished over the years, but I was excited nonetheless to return to the beautiful city and compare fact with fiction.
I embarked on the trip with my boyfriend Leo via Amtrak, an experience that would also be a first for me. It was amazing to see the scenery via the Lounge Car. We departed late in the evening from Salt Lake and awoke just outside of Reno, Nevada. The changes in scenery as we traveled from the desert wastelands to the High Sierras and then down to the beautifully lush San Fernando Valley and finally to the wetlands and San Francisco Bay were awe inspiring.
Upon arrival I couldn’t wait to be able to explore the city. We began in the Mission District of San Francisco, where we were staying with a friend. The beautiful Victorian Architecture of the area immediately struck me. I had seen many films, etc. that had taken place here, but I don’t think anything can compare to what it feels like experiencing it in real life. As someone who was born and raised in a small town of a couple hundred people, and is now living in a relatively small city, the vastness of San Francisco blew me away. I feel like I could spend my whole life exploring the city and still not see everything it has to offer.
The next day we decided to venture over to Golden Gate Park and Baker Beach, what a beautiful park and breathtaking beach. We started out at the Golden Gate Bridge and worked our way down the cliffs to the beach. It was awe-inspiring. Throughout the course of the afternoon we made our way down the beach. We reached the end of the beach much sooner than expected, so we camped out and decided to enjoy the ocean and waves for a moment. I remember this as one of the most vivid portions of the trip. When we began our trek it was so foggy that we could only see about a hundred feet in front or behind ourselves. As we sat and took in the beauty of the beach the fog began to lift, we could suddenly see what looked like an Island out in the distance. As the fog lifted further we could see that we were actually looking across the bay to the North Peninsula not out into the Pacific Ocean as we had assumed. It was so beautiful to slowly see everything take shape and to see the fog lift. We got a gorgeous view of the Bridge and the sun came out. We were able to sit back and take in some sun and enjoy the beach for a few more hours before it began to fog up again. It was a really cool experience to have to fog lift and realize how disoriented and confused we had been directionally.
We spent the next day renting bicycles in the ferry district and biking along the northern end of the island across the golden gate bridge and down into Sausalito on the northern end of the peninsula. The northern end of the Island was beautiful and covered in parks. There was a great parkway that had recently been restored and re-planted with the native plants that stretched on for about a mile. The view from the Bridge was incredible and I loved getting to see the golden gate up close and personal, I was blown away by the scale of it and the gorgeous color. When we eventually arrived in Sausalito we took the ferry from the Northern Peninsula back to downtown and got to see it arriving from the bay. It was gorgeous. That evening we camped out near Ghirardelli Square and watched the sun set over the bay. It was beautiful.
Our final day of the trip we spent exploring the different neighborhoods of downtown and hit up most of the well-known tourist attractions. Coit Tower, Russian Hill, and the destination I had been yearning to see since growing up in the 90’s watching Full House, Alamo Square. It was a beautiful trip and I loved getting to experience a new city. The Architecture and Natural Elements of this gorgeous environment blew me away. I cannot wait to return to this beautiful metropolis and I will cherish the memories for a lifetime.
“Everything in nature is self-organized and a whole lot of what human beings do is self-organized”
– Jane Jacobs
The words and legacy of Jane Jacobs continually radiate and intertwine through our lives and our environment. Jane Jacobs wrote about the city as a dynamic and integrated system. Along this line of thought, she often spoke of the emerging influence of self-organizing systems, systems that aren’t in place from a plan or command structure to arrive at something. The emerging influences embedded within self-organizing systems can lead us to acknowledging some of the complexities of our world and the patterns of mutual interactions within them. The recognition of self-organizing systems within our dynamic world reveals a transparent aspect of empathy and apathy. And so, I investigate self-organizing systems as a window to see the truths within both the positive and negative realities of our time. Through this renewed sense of self-awareness, the effects of our actions within our environment can guide us toward the repairing and healing of our places, ultimately celebrating the vivacity and strength within our communities.
Self-organizing systems continually manifest themselves throughout various realms of our daily motions. They may emerge and become visible over time or may become transparent within a single event. Quite often, these systems are triggered from the empathic responses to experiences with one another; and in some instances, as a response to the apathy from the societal disconnection to our environment. Today, I reflect back upon an experience I had a few weeks ago, as a way of understanding the empathy we need to always hold onto within our lives—illuminating the emergence of self-organizing systems and deep complexities within our environment.
It was just another ordinary Monday, going through the hustle and bustle of Graduate school and work. As I reflect back today at the ‘check-list’ of things I need to accomplish, I realize how my daily motions quite often are out of my immediate reality. Where my list of ‘to dos’ overwhelm my thoughts. On this particular Monday, I was very secluded in my routines to be “efficient” with my time. And so, I drove to school, left around 5:45 and was on my way in my secluded car to run the rest of my errands for the day.
I was approaching a red traffic light when I was immediately sobered into reality as I saw an elderly gentleman fall directly into traffic as he was crossing the road at the crosswalk. A split second went by and a few people got out of their cars. I turned my isolating box off and ran as fast as I could to the elderly man. I called 911 on my way towards him to get EMT there as soon as possible. I began to talk to a few people who were also trying to help the gentleman. His name was Alan and Alan could not move. The rush hour traffic had been building up and many people just began honking their horns, acting annoyed that we were blocking their lane to get to wherever they were in a rush to. A sense of apathy began to manifest itself among the jam of cars building up. However, empathic responses continued to emerge among several caring people who were talking to Alan to make sure he was calm, warm, and to reassure him help was on the way.
A self-organizing system began to unfold around this poor gentleman who laid flat in the middle of the road. The group of us split into various tasks without speaking to one another. A few blocked the road and started to direct traffic, while others grabbed blankets to comfort the stunned individual. There was such a sense of obligation and genuine care amongst the group of people that surrounded the gentleman. The empathic responses of individuals radiated among more and more people who felt the need to help in any way they could. It was an impulse of collective empathic connectivity that is inherent within all of us. Just like Jane Jacobs observed the deep connections between people and place, Jeremy Rifkin, author of Empathic Civilization, asserts that a heightened sense of empathy connects our very individualized population with each other in an “interdependent, expanded, and integrated social organism” (Rifkin p.24).
“Empathy is the psychological means by which we become part of other people’s lives and share meaningful experiences. The very notion of transcendence means to reach beyond oneself, to participate with and belong to the larger community to be embedded in more complex webs of meaning.”
- Jeremy Rifkin, Empathic Civilization, p.20
I saw the fire-truck heading toward us in the distance and looked around at the massive traffic jam of honking cars, with people acting annoyed and talking on their cell phones as if this accident involving a human being was not as important as their time. When the fire-truck arrived the emergency personnel strategically parked to block most of the intersection. Seconds after the police showed up and further blocked the lanes.
As the medical personnel tended to Alan, they were able to get him to an upright and standing position. As they were checking his vitals they asked where he lived. He hesitated for a second and pointed up in the direction toward the mountains. They then asked him how he was going to get home. At this point in time you saw a little bit of his personality, as he chuckled and said he just wanted to walk home and enjoy the beautiful day. His humility and positivity assured me that he would be fine.
Right then a city bus decided to squeeze by the ambulance and the fire-truck to ‘stay on time’ with the assigned bus route. Well, the bus almost sideswiped the ambulance and went up a bit onto the center median where we all heard a loud pop. The police and bystanders watched the bus get to its stop not even half a block away, but with a FLAT TIRE. And so, the emergence of the apathetic actions from the bus driver lead to this unintended consequence of a flat tire and delay in the routine bus schedule.
The point of this story is merely to underline the complexities of our everyday experiences and the self-organizing systems that emerge amongst such complexities. Each experience shapes the way we see and understand our word. I reflect upon this experience and realize the importance of self-organizing systems and how empathy trumps apathy in our community. Complexities will always emerge within our communities and it is up to us to recognize the importance of acting upon our realities in ways that help heal and shape our world in an empathic way.
To conclude, I’d like to urge communities around the world to remember to be empathic. Open your eyes and truly observe your surroundings. What can you do to help make this world a better place? What can you do to advocate for pedestrian safety and walkability in your community? Even the smallest actions can replicate into a much bigger action and consequence. Let’s begin by opening our eyes and make our communities a safer and more walkable place for everyone within them. Our emerging self-organizing systems begin with you.
3 Rides 3 ‘Hoods Jane Jacobs Roll
Q & A with host Cortney Mild, Chattanooga’s Green Trips Membership Specialist
Cortney Mild in 2010′s 3 Rides 3 ‘Hoods Jane Jacobs Roll. Photo by Cameron Adams
Riding my bike around town is what first spurred my interest in how communities are built. Like many young adults in the US, I didn’t ride a bike much between the age of 14 and 20. When I returned to cycling as an adult, I was horrified of riding with traffic, but over time I gained confidence. Biking extended the places I could access in Salt Lake City beyond the Trax light rail line. In Chattanooga, it gave me a quick way to cross the river into downtown thanks to our Walnut Street bike-ped bridge. The more I rode, the more I started asking, “How can we make it easier to get around a city by bicycle?” and I found many of the answers in the planning field.
I recently returned to Chattanooga, Tennessee after completing a Master’s Degree in Community and Regional Planning at the University of Oregon. My current work focuses on transportation and local food systems. At the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency, I’m working on the development of Green Trips, a program to promote transportation options, and at Crabtree Farms, a nonprofit urban farm, I assist with education and outreach programs that connect Chattanoogans to our local food-shed.
Check out 3 Rides 3 ‘Hoods Jane Jacobs Roll for 2013!
1. Why are you interested in hosting a Jane Jacobs Walk in Tennessee?
Chattanoogans are increasingly becoming interested in walking, bicycling, and using transit for their daily trips. Local initiatives are making it ever more attractive to use these forms of transportation, be it establishing a bike share, extending our greenway system, enlivening the public space, or working together to create places where we can play and grow our own food together within our neighborhoods. We have many opportunities to make our community even more livable, and I hope that a Jane’s Roll will encourage my neighbors to celebrate our successes, engage with our surroundings on a deeper level, and discuss how we can work together to improve our community.
2. Tell us about the Green Trips Program in Chattanooga. How does hosting a Jane Jacobs Walk integrate with the work of your program?
Green Trips is expected to launch in June of 2013. Our program is federally funded by the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program. As such, our primary goal is to improve air quality in our region by reducing the number of drive-alone trips. Through Green Trips, people in our area can earn rewards for taking trips by walking, biking, transit, and carpooling, as well as telecommuting and working compressed work weeks. By logging their ‘green trips’ on our website, they will earn points to redeem for gift certificates to regional businesses. Our website will also provide transportation resources and allow members to connect with biking, walking, and transit buddies.
Community outreach is another major component of the Green Trips program. We are planning events such as walking lunch and learns, cash cab-inspired trivia games on our downtown electric shuttles, and a Chattanooga Tweed Ride. Hosting a Jane’s Roll is another great way to get people out on their bikes, connecting with the community. For this event, we are partnering with the Community Design Forum, which brings people together to discuss the urban design of Chattanooga’s downtown and region in an effort to improve the health and sustainability of our community.
3. Tell us about your previous Jane Jacobs Walk, 3 Rides 3 ‘Hoods in 2010?
3 Rides 3 ‘Hoods 2010 was a great success! About 70 cyclists joined us and 50 participated in all three loops of the ride. Lou Pape, a Chattanooga Bicycle Club member, said of the ride, “I’ve had days when I’ve ridden much further and much faster, but rarely have they been more enjoyable, or informative, than 3 Rides 3 ‘Hoods.” In 2010 we focused more on the history of the places we visited. We learned about indigenous settlements on the banks of the Tennessee River in what is now downtown Chattanooga, local Civil War battles from atop Orchard Knob, and Chattanooga’s first suburb – St. Elmo. This year we will follow a different route through the same neighborhoods and focus more on recent improvements and upcoming initiatives.
3 Rides 3 ‘Hoods, Jane Jacobs Roll 2010. Photo by Cameron Adams
3 Rides 3 ‘Hoods, Jane Jacobs Roll 2010. Photo by Cameron Adams
4. What are your main goals to accomplish with your event 3 Rides 3 ‘Hoods in 2013?
1) Generate interest and excitement in the Green Trips program.
2) Give opportunities for people who may not feel comfortable bicycling on city streets alone the opportunity to ride with a group of experienced cyclists at a moderate pace
3) Start conversations that spur improvements in community design
3 Rides 3 ‘Hoods Jane Jacobs Roll 2010. Photo by Cameron Adams
5. What are some of your visions for the future in your community and city?
One day it will be easy and attractive for Chattanoogans of all ages to access their daily needs by walking, biking, and riding transit. Affordable housing will be available in close proximity to the places we work and play. We will know our neighbors, and we will feel comfortable visiting with each other in our neighborhood streets. Everyone will have access to healthy, fresh, affordable food, much of which will be produced within the region. We will be good stewards of our mountains, waterways, air, land, and wildlife.
Jane Jacobs Walk Q & A with Vidhya Mohankumar, Founder of Urban Design Collective in India
Vidhya Mohankumar, Founder of the Urban Design Collective
I am an architect and urban designer with a focus on creating livable streets and great public spaces and a decade of work experience in India, Ireland and the United States.
More specifically, my work is geared towards people-oriented development centered around transit as part of a sustainable development agenda that I am passionate about. My urban design projects exhibit a wide variety in the name of master plans for cities, towns, station areas, harbour areas and their environs as well as redevelopment plans for town centres, city public spaces and brownfield sites. I have also worked on several strategic planning projects, local area plans and urban design studies for existing developments.
Apart from this, I have also been associated with various academic and research institutions through teaching, guest critiques, charettes and publications. Though I find travel and particularly, the buzz of a big city to be a constant source of exhilaration, over the years my interests have oscillated between photography, installation art and films.
I received a Master’s degree in urban design with distinction from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA and a baccalaureate degree in architecture from the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli, India.
We are excited to announce two Jane Jacobs Walks to be hosted in Chennai India for the 2013 season! For information about the walks please check out these event pages: Jane Jacobs comes to Chennai India and Jane Jacobs comes to Pondicherry
1. Why are you interested in hosting a Jane Jacobs Walk in India?
I have been familiar with Jane Jacobs’ work for a decade now and her seminal piece ’The Death and Life of Great American Cities’ was the first book I had to read and summarize as part of my masters program in Urban design at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. I remember being so enthralled with the idea of the ‘street ballet’ and how it was the perfect way the describe the streets of India! I can’t remember how I stumbled upon the Jane Jacobs Walk website but the opportunity to host a Jane Jacobs Walk in the very streets that came alive in front of my eyes as I read the book was not to be passed!
2. What are your main goals to accomplish with your events?
I think the Jane Jacobs Walk is a simple yet delightful way to get people to engage with the city. Our walks in the two cities – Chennai and Pondicherry are set in their respective historic cores. It would be a good event if we can get a diverse cross section of people to come together and participate in meaningful conversations about the social and built future of the city with the historic core as a backdrop.
3. What are your Jane Jacobs Walks focused on?
Our Jane Jacobs Walks will be focused on stories. Stories are how every city’s culture and heritage thrive and everyone loves a good story! For both Chennai and Pondicherry, we are researching stories that bring alive their historic cores for the people on our walks.
Urban Design Collective community engagement
4. What are some of your visions for the future in your city?
My ‘City Utopia’ has amazing architecture, charming public spaces for everyone alike, great streets for people to walk, cycle, linger and schmooze and a super-efficient underground mass transit network that will get you from A to B in the blink of an eye! Sounds almost a bit like NYC right? Well, I am definitely a huge fan!
But truth be told, I was born in India, grew up in Saudi Arabia and since then have lived in and travelled to over a dozen countries across four continents… and this has allowed me to see first hand, various experiments in urbanism in over 50 cities and trust me, India is like none other. Since returning to India in 2008, I have been working with various cities and the challenges are both unique and numerous particularly when it comes to the issue of inclusiveness. My ‘City Utopia’ is therefore both my strength as well as my weakness… it keeps me going and yet keeps me grounded to the realities that need attention. And as much as it is a challenge to bring together so many people towards a vision for a better city, I am beginning to believe more and more that participatory planning is the only way to do it.
5. Tell us about your organization, the Urban Design Collective. How does hosting a Jane Jacobs Walk integrate with the work of your organization?
Urban Design Collective (UDC) is a non-profit organization that works as a collaborative platform for professionals from the fields of Architecture, Urban Design and Planning who are passionate about cities and urbanism. UDC works to improve understanding and learning of what makes good cities/ urban spaces through a sustained dialogue on pertinent issues with a focus on participatory approaches to planning.
Hosting a Jane Jacobs Walk aligns with UDC’s objectives in more than one-way. To start with, it offers us an opportunity to improve our own understanding of a part of the two cities we are conducting the walks in. It then allows us to meet and interact with a cross section of the city’s residents who have chosen to be part of the walks for what it can offer to them. Such interactions always offer a possibility of being converted into more meaningful relationships in a city building process. And finally, UDC being a collaborative platform, it gives us great pleasure to be associated with Jane Jacobs Walk as a like-minded partner organization to promote dialogue on the design of cities.
Urban Design Collective
Greetings fellow Jane Jacobs Walk Visionaries,
I’m proud to announce that we held our first meeting of the new year for Jane Jacobs Walk 2013. Our team is a diverse and motivated group of exciting, creative, and inspiring individuals. Our aspirations this year are growing in a profound way, so stay tuned for updates and exciting news to come in the near future.
In our process of embarking into the 2013 Jane Jacobs Walk season, we want to recognize the amazing accomplishments and efforts of you, the public, who have been involved with Jane Jacobs Walks in the past. We would love to hear from you, fellow Jane Jacobs hosts, participants, followers, and individuals on your experiences, stories, and feelings from the outcomes of your Jane Jacobs Walk events. I invite you to share your stories on the blog or via email, so that we can recognize the amazing accomplishments and outcomes you have had from Jane Jacobs Walks.
Also, if you have any photos from your previous Jane Jacobs Walks, please email them to me, chelsea@janejacobswalk.org, so that I can highlight your event on our website. Please include the City, JJ Walk Name/theme, and a brief statement of the ‘walk’ with the photo. Also, include your name so that we may give proper credit to you, the photographer!
I invite and encourage anyone with ideas and interests toward something in your environment, to become a champion within your community. Consider hosting a Jane Jacobs Walk this year. They can be anytime, anywhere, with any type of theme (i.e. biking, transit, walking, experiencing nature, etc). For more information, please browse the website. There is information on how to host a walk and a tab for you to register your walk online. Once you register, we will get your event posted online and help promote your JJ Walk.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me and our team will get back to you shortly. Cheers to another season of Walking, Observing, & Connecting with your community and environment!
Best,
Chelsea Gauthier
National Director, Jane Jacobs Walk
chelsea@janejacobswalk.org
Welcome to the Jane Jacobs Walk website. As the National Director of Jane Jacobs Walks, I invite all of you, as active citizens to walk, observe, and connect with your community. We all have connections, ideas, and observations of things going on within our cities and communities. Jane Jacobs Walks provide the chance to get your voice heard. Please feel free to explore our site and host a Jane Jacobs Walk of your own.
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Mitakuye Oyasin is a Lakota Sioux phrase I learned two years ago while in Mobridge, South Dakota. Its significance is one that has stuck with me ever since, meaning that we are all connected and all things are related. As I recognize my soliphilia and solistalgia toward my home, I find an underlying emotional distress emerging into my everyday thoughts. While we explore the deep realm of our lives and land, an awakened consciousness guides us through the unknown and the familiar. My love for the natural environment and the thought of it being destroyed truly scares me into a conscious state of acknowledging the dire need to do something. And with this, a heightened sensitivity to others and the world leads the path to making real change.
There are certain times in our lives that have profound impact on who we are and who we want to be. This past weekend was a reawakening of the soul, body, and mind for me, as I attended an ecopsychology conference. It wasn’t necessarily the conference that was the sole reason for this deep impact on my psyche, but rather it was the collection of the people, their stories, and a shared longing for society to reconnect with nature and our community. As my emotions radiated from my heart to the pit of my stomach, my brain was overtaken by a new consciousness. It’s as though I’ve been asleep for a few years, trapped and oppressed by a societal notion of who I’m suppose to be and what I’m suppose to be doing in my early-to-mid twenties. Within all of our years of schooling, we’ve been shaped, molded, and primed to become a part of a robotic society, a society that is now largely struggling, intimidated, and anxious of the life ahead.
This weekend re-awakened the artist in me, as a ballerina sensitive to the melodic memories and experiences in life, as a daughter and sister from a loving family; as a friend who thrives, grows and learns from the deep relationships with others; as a creature of this complex ecosystem whose wildness needs to be reawakened; as a member of a multifaceted community; and as a woman whose empathy toward our natural environment and home depends on a balanced relationship amongst the complexities of our ecosystem. As I’m finishing up my final year as a Graduate student, I recognize the need to step outside the boundaries of this senseless numbness to the world and help heal and preserve it in any way that I can. After all, there is a dire need to start taking action to impact my community in a positive way, just as journalist and community activist Jane Jacobs did.
My hope is to begin incrementally changing my community and my home by reconnecting people with the complex world around them. I believe Jane Jacobs Walks are a great way to begin the conversation of our homes in both the built and natural environment. You cannot separate the two, since the interconnection between the two is deeper than is seen to the naked eye. The intricate nature of our relationships with each other expands from our connections to our cities, our homes, our communities and the entire natural ecosystem. Our social, economic, and environmental characteristics, unique to each community, depend on the overall love and ecological health of the place.
Jane Jacobs Walks provide the chance to begin the conversation of what’s working and what still needs to be done. I strongly urge you to place one foot in front of the other and begin the conversation and exploration with your community and your environment. Please explore the Jane Jacobs Walk website, www.janejacobswalk.org, and host a walk of your own in your community. These walks can be in any fashion that fits your passion and interests, from historic preservation, community connections, to nature walks, to transportation alternatives, and so on. After all, the vibrancy and health of the future of your home depend on the collective change of people to respect, love, and cherish the delicate nuances within nature and the land.
Best,
Chelsea
National Director, Jane Jacobs Walk
The 2012 Jane Jacobs Walk kickoff event will be held on Thursday, March 1st, from 6:30 to 8:00, at Nobrow Coffee in downtown Salt Lake City!
The event will highlight some of the exciting news and initiatives for 2012, premier some new short films, and provide information how you can be involved with Jane Jacobs Walk.
The 2012 Kickoff Event will be broadcast via webcast and highlights will be available on our YouTube channel.
